1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to integrated circuits and more particularly to alternative powering of integrated circuits.
2. Description of Related Art
As is known, integrated circuits (ICs) are used in a multitude of electronic devices, including radios, wireless local area network (WLAN) devices, cellular telephones, cable set top boxes and/or modems, Bluetooth devices, radio frequency identification (RFID) readers, computers, personal digital assistants (PDA), etc. Each of these electronic devices includes a battery and/or an AC to DC power supply to provide the power to the ICs contained therein. When the device is powered via a battery, the battery voltage may be used to directly power the ICs or it may be converted to convert the battery voltage into one or more DC voltages that power the ICs.
As is also known, advances in integrated circuit design and manufacturing continues to reduce the power consumption of ICs. While the power consumption of ICs is continuing to be reduced, for battery operated devices, the energy of the battery will eventually be consumed. When this occurs, a new battery is required or the battery needs to be recharged. In either case, it adds cost to use the device and/or is time consuming for the user of the device.
Therefore, a need exists for an alternatively powered low power integrated circuits thereby reducing or eliminating the need to power such low power ICs by a battery.